FALL RIVER — A District Court judge amended a drug sentence in the first local special hearing Friday on drug cases potentially tainted by alleged evidence tampering at the state crime lab.

Judge Kevan Cunningham reduced Allan Bernard's sentence for cocaine possession from 12 to eight months. Bernard, a Fall River resident, pleaded guilty to the charge in 2006 after the drugs in his case were analyzed by Annie Dookhan, who resigned her position as a chemist at the state crime lab amid charges she falsified drug reports.

Bernard was placed on probation at that time but was arrested for being in violation in early May and was sentenced to 12 months in a house of correction, according to Assistant District Attorney Patrick Bromberg.

Bernard was not released Friday because he is still serving the rest of what is now an eight-month sentence.

Bernard's case was one of six heard Friday. There are roughly 4,400 Bristol County cases that were "potentially impacted by the problems in the state lab," Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney's Office, said.

"Whether or not they were actually affected by the lab remains to be seen in these hearings," Miliote said.

A state task force known as the "boiler room" has been charged with reviewing drug cases Dookhan may have worked on and informing each county of the cases.

Miliote said Bristol County also has its own task force reviewing cases.

"What we are primarily looking for is 'A,' did Annie Dookhan testify in the case, 'B' was she the primary chemist, 'C' was she the secondary or confirmatory chemist," Miliote said.

On Friday, Cunningham also took under advisement a motion for a new trial in the case of Ainsley Long of Falmouth. Long was convicted in May of knowingly being present where heroin is kept.

Dookhan was the primary chemist on that case, but the secondary chemist testified at Long's trial.

Friday's session was for district court cases in which the defendant is currently incarcerated, Miliote said.

Four other inmates were brought to the court hearing Friday; however, their cases were not heard because they did not have lawyers present.

"We wanted to be proactive and not wait for lawyers to file motions so we brought people in," Miliote said.

He added that the District Attorney's Office has been "receiving motions regularly" from attorneys who believe their clients were affected by the state lab scandal.

Many of the district court cases deal with smaller possession charges, while the larger cases of drug trafficking will be dealt with in Superior Court hearings, the first of which will be Oct. 25.

Miliote said Bristol County has "really been dealing with this on a case-by-case basis."

He said the county's case review is "certainly stretching resources," and that the District Attorney's Office has appealed to the governor's office for more funding. "This is adding thousands of new cases to an already strapped system," he said.

"In Bristol County, we handle around 30,000 cases per year, and that's all the system is designed to handle. If we add on these cases without more resources, that means we have to take something away from other places."